49ers make changes to help improve safety for fans

San Francisco — The 49ers haven’t just improved on the football field. The grandstands seem safer, too.

The team’s official line is that in the last few years they have simply implemented ideas from the NFL. That’s partly true. The league is deeply concerned about increasingly unruly behavior in the stands all over the country.

But the reality is that the 49ers were embarrassed by the hand-to-hand combat at the Aug. 20 exhibition game with the Raiders. Changes were made.

I bought a ticket and spent Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay in the stands. Although the team seemed concerned about having a reporter roaming free – a media relations official tried to tell me I’d have to have a security chaperone – the behavior seemed to be under control. Fans were loud and rowdy, and some were clearly drunk by the end of the game, but I never thought things might turn violent.

“Instead of having someone in a yellow ‘Event Staff’ jacket, we’ve added code-enforcement teams looking for certain types of elements, like overly intoxicated fans,” said Jim Mercurio, vice president of stadium operations and security. “We’ve put them in more visible places, like the concourse, the stands and the rest rooms.”

At the start of the season, Mercurio says, there were 20 to 30 of the bright green jackets prowling the stands. After the Raider melee, they doubled that number. On Sunday, I watched stadium security stop two weaving fans and deliver them to police officers. They were quickly shown the gate.

“Just drunk and stupid,” the officer shrugged.

The parking lot is still ground zero. There’s talk of limiting drinking, but at one point a bunch of guys rolled past with a beer keg balanced on the seat of a bicycle. As they rolled by San Francisco police, the groups just exchanged friendly nods.

There have been changes. The NFL doesn’t want tailgating to begin until four hours before kickoff, but the 49ers routinely opened earlier. With only one street into the lots, cars would start to line up as early as 7 a.m., creating a huge traffic jam. Now they make early arrivals circle the stadium until 9.

The team has also realized that some tailgaters weren’t even attending the games. They drove in, set up camp, and spent the day partying in the parking lot. Today, if you don’t have a ticket when the game starts, you’re out. Fans are also expected to leave promptly after games.

Of course, the nuclear option would be for the 49ers, or the league, to choose not to sell alcohol. That won’t happen. Football and beer are deeply entwined, not to mention the millions teams make from $10 (yikes) cups of beer.

There’s also hope that with the team doing so well, the family-friendly season-ticket holders will return and Candlestick will turn into a pleasant Sunday afternoon picnic spot.

I don’t see that happening either. Today, many fans would rather sit on the couch or drop into the local sports bar and watch the game on high-definition television for free.

That leaves the all-day party people. Late in the game, I sat next to a middle-aged guy who said he’d changed his seats this year. He nodded to the upper sections, where drunken fans were howling and whooping.

“That’s why I moved,” he said.

That’s the crowd the team has now. The 49ers won’t change them; they can only hope to manage them. They’re trying. Good luck with that.